Medical marijuana HB 1250 bill would outlaw MMJ edibles: Read it here

At 1:30 p.m. today, the public can comment on HB 1043, a medical marijuana bill described as a cleanup measure of last year's bill by its co-sponsors, Senator Pat Steadman and Representative Tom Massey. But the Cannabis Therapy Institute's Laura Kriho also plans to address HB 1250, a brand new effort to ban MMJ edibles.

The bill, on view below, is among the simpler pieces of legislation to be put forward this session. As stated in its summary, HB 1250 "would prohibit medical marijuana-infused consumable food and beverage product manufacturing and sale" by amending a portion of HB 1284, the state's primary medical marijuana regulatory measure. Specifically, the words "consumption" and "edible products" would be excised from one paragraph of the law, signed by former Governor Bill Ritter last June.

Kriho's take? "The Cannabis Therapy Institute has always felt the sum of 1284 violates the constitution" -- specifically Amendment 20, which legalized medical marijuana in Colorado. "So this is just another step in implementing an unconstitutional law. And you can't restrict a patient's medicine, and which ways a patient chooses to take his medicine, whether it be pill form, liquid form, or whatever. It should be up to them.

"This is the most tested medicine in the history of the human race," she continues. "Humans have been using it continuously for 10,000 years, and there's never been a death from an overdose. There's no toxicity level on this plant, and you can't even say that about water or potatoes. One of the only negative things anyone's ever been able to say about it is that smoking it sometimes irritates people's lungs -- so people who want to get away from the lung-irritant factor eat it. And now, they're going to force them to use a method that, for them, is more unhealthy because they're going to ban edibles?"

In Kriho's view, it's vitally important for citizens to share their objections about this bill, and problematic aspects of 1043, with the judiciary committee today. "There are only one or two times you can talk to the state legislature on these issues -- and this is one of those times," she says. "Democrats haven't been on our side, but Republicans are even less on our side, and because the Republicans control the House, some of these more restrictive ideas are going to have legs they didn't have last year."